Potential DMP buyout

Hey Fakku! considering you just bought out Kitty Media you may want to look into one of your only competitors Digital Manga Publishing (DMP) hentai wing Project H. From what I have been hearing from some of their Kickstarter project backers, they are on the verge of going bankrupt. They have not responded to backers for months and not answering emails, they are not paying translators for work done, hastily moving offices etc. The point is the writings on the wall. They somehow managed to snag a few good artists like Mizuryu Kei among others. I would hate to see good artist and their works get lost to supporting consumers.

Im pretty sure a few people here would please jacob by sexual means if kodomo no jikan was a fakku book. At least a few of the books woulda been released if not all the digital version at least. I did say this release was never gonna be released. Just make me not trust any PH preorders or wish lists.

I'm honestly not too surprised that they're possibly going bankrupt. I never really kept up with any part of their company other than Project-H, but it seems like they really started to take a hit a few years ago when they couldn't find a printer willing to print their books for about a year. After that, there was some hope with their "Vanilla Essence" Kickstarter which went well in my opinion apart from some delays and they did improve paper quality for a brief period, but they quickly went back to using lower quality paper, didn't sustain a regular stream of releases, and had a difficult time keeping their newer releases in-stock. Meanwhile FAKKU was releasing better quality physical and digital books.

I think part of the reason why they're failing is that I've gotten the impression that they were never able to get a decent amount of revenue from digital sales and needed to survive on physical sales. Unfortunately, they never really improved the resolution of their releases past say circa 2005 quality (though to be fair this might partially be the Japanese licensors not providing good resolution sources). Unless if I'm mistaken, after February of last year they haven't released any physical hentai and have only had digital releases (mostly doujinshi) and some ecchi/borderline h physical releases.

While it's disappointing that they're possibly going under since I always feel that it's good to have competition, it's difficult for a company to stay alive when they're not being very competitive. If they do fail, hopefully some of their release plans get picked-up by FAKKU or another publisher. For instance, there was a Mizuryu Kei book that they were going to release and they had plans to digitally publish Comic Penguin Magazine.

Wouldn't be the first time to see a publisher get ruined.
I'm kinda a fan of the lower quality paper to be quite honest. While not as smooth and clean it is far far easier to open.
I'm just happy that if they are going under I was able to grab some awesome books like Sweet Dreams by Kenji Kishizuka, Stop Quibbling About Love by Kerorin, and Trembling Lips+Girl's Shock by INU. Sadly I think their downfall was more due to not really having a spotlight on them as Fakku did.

Wait, Project H is going to bankrupt soon? I did not know that.

But I think it really possible since their digital manga quality is terribly low for no reason even I tried to zoom in, it still blur as hell which is unacceptable for me. And also they cannot make every works uncensored as it should be.

Well uncorroborated theory based on the the over shot deadline with nothing sent physically and maybe digitally for kodomo no jikan, 8 people quit, plus i think someone who work there during the vanilla essence one said it was a shit show and most of those people quit, they haven't update or even answered pm or calls in months, people in the kickstarters saying bankrupted, and a few former answer some ama thingy about working for the DMP parent. 7 months and nothing passed wallpapers and the translator(who did the scanlation i believe) saying nothing. Didn't buy because too much at once and they weren't selling on their store which is a huge fuck up there when people would gladly buy later or missed the kickstarter.

That one good thing Jacob did with overfiend... He selling copies onsite. Make sense. But then again im going off rumors and complaints on the public comments.

I agree with pretty much everything you've said! However, the rumors I heard, was that this is less about economics and simply toxic work environment. It seems to have always been a small department, understaffed, with poor management. Seems like the people with no decision making authority keep getting stuck with the blame for issues that come from poor decisions above. If you can't keep someone in a job for more than 6 months at a time I, as a manager, would wonder what I was doing.

I would love to see Inu and Keorin come to Fakku! I would even buy Trembling Lips and Quibling About Love again, because I know Fakku would bring it, quality wise.

I actually did leave a post on my site at the end of 2017 saying the translation was completed and delivered to them in April of that year. I only did that after they seemed to claim that the translator was still working on the script in September or October.

My knowledge of what's going on at that company is pretty much zero, but my part in the project was finished in April. I could go on at length about my time with them, but I'd rather not open myself up to litigation. Suffice it to say, I'm not surprised by this recent news.

Doesn't look good now. All the kickstarters pass vanilla stalled and the tezuka guy said they stopped everything.


Pray for fire sell on printing rights and deep pockets.

The fact that they're also not on Anime Expo's exhibitor list is also a bad sign (Anime Expo Exhibitors). Plus, some of the comments on their Kickstarters have linked this review on Glassdoor.com apparently from a former intern that indicates that they've been using Kickstarter funds for things other than the project, so there's a good chance most or all of the money raised for their projects is gone.

I feel horrible for the backers. Hopefully, DMP will be able to fulfill their projects before they go under.

I used to work there before FAKKU. Some fun stories I can't talk about. Wish them luck in their projects tho and hope they're able to complete them at least.